A Real Blue Switch Operator
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Owner:
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SixWulfs
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Released:
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Wednesday, June 14, 2017
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Origin:
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California, United States
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Recently Spotted:
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In Pet Lodge TB INN
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Hopefully this geocoin will travel all around the world, enjoying the results of that fateful day that we provided access to the global utility of GPS!
This geocoin has a very special meaning to me. In the spring of the year 2000, I was an Air Force satellite "flyer" working in the 2d Space Operations Squadron, the operators of the GPS satellite constellation. At the direction of then-President Clinton, who was following-up on the promise of former President Reagan, we were directed to turn off "selective availability," the intentional distortion of the publically-available GPS signal. In a single shift, as the on-duty Payload System Operator, I was responsible for building the navigation uploads for all the active satellites, loading them with the instructions to comply with this order. Although there were obviously many, many people involved in the process, I was the person at the keyboard generating the uploads, and preparing them to be transmitted to the satellites. In essence, I was one of the key particpants in throwing the infamous "blue switch."
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